24. And that we may be yet more particular the very Prayer for Christs Catholick Church in the Office of Communion beside that it is nothing but a plain execution of an Apostolical precept set down in the Preface of the Prayer it was also used in all times and in all Liturgies of the ancient Church And we finde this attested by S. Cyril of Jerusalem Deinde postquam confectum est illud spirituale sacrificium ... obsecramus Deum pro communi Ecclesiarum pace pro tranquillitate mundi pro Regibus c. To the same purpose also there is a testimony in S. Chrysostome which because it serves not onely here but also to other uses it will not be amiss here to note it Quid autem sibi vult primum omnium In obsequio scil quotidiano perpetuâ—que divinae religionis ritu Atque id noverunt fideles quomodo diebus singulis mane vespere orationes fundantur ad Dominum quomodo pro omni mundo Regibus omnibus qui in sublimitate positi sunt obsecrationes in Ecclesia fiant Sed forte quis dixerit pro omnibus quod ait tantum fideles intelligi voluisse At id verum non esse quae sequuntur ostendunt Denique ait pro Regibus neque enim tunc Reges Deum colebant It is evident by this that the custome of the Church was not onely in the celebration of the holy Communion but in all her other Offices to say this Prayer not onely for Christs Catholick Church but for all the world 25. And that the charity of the Church might not be misconstrued he produces his warrant S. Paul not onely expresly commands us to pray for all men but addes by way of instance for Kings who then were unchristian and heathen in all the world But this form of Prayer is almost word for word in S. Ambrose Haec regula Ecclesiastica est tradita à Magistro gentium quâ utuntur Sacerdotes nostri ut pro omnibus supplicent ... deprecantes pro Regibus ... orantes pro iis quibus sublimis potestas credita est ut in justitia veritate gubernent ... postulantes pro iis qui in necessitate varia sunt ut eruti liberati Deum collaudent incolumitatis Authorem So farre goes our form of Prayer But S. Ambrose addes Referentes quoque gratiarum actiones ... And so it was with us in the first service-Service-books of King Edward and the Preface to the Prayer engages us to a thanksgiving but I know not how it was stoln out the Preface still remaining to chide their unwariness that took down that part of the building and yet left the gate standing But if the Reader please to be satisfied concerning this Prayer which indeed is the longest in our Service-book and of greatest consideration he may see it taken up from the universal custome of the Church and almost in all the words of the old Liturgies if he will observe the Liturgies themselves of S. Basil S. Chrysostome and the concurrent testimonies of Tertullian S. Austin Celestine Gennadius Prosper and Theophylact 26. I shall not need to make any excuses for the Churches reading those portions of Scripture which we call Epistles and Gospels before the Communion They are Scriptures of the choicest and most profitable transaction And let me observe this thing That they are not onely declarations of all the mysteries of our redemption and rules of good life but this choice is of the greatest compliance with the necessities of the Christian Church that can be imagined For if we deny to the people a liberty of reading Scriptures may they not complain as Isaac did against the inhabitants of the land that the Philistines had spoiled his well and the fountains of living water If a free use to all of them and of all Scriptures were permitted should not the Church her self have more cause to complain of the infinite licentiousness and loosness of interpretations and of the commencement of ten thousand errours which would certainly be consequent to such permission Reason and Religion will chide us in the first reason and experience in the latter And can the wit of man conceive a better temper and expedient then that such Scriptures onely or principally should be laid before them all in daily Offices which contain in them all the mysteries of our redemption and all the rules of good life which two things are done by the Gospels and Epistles respectively the first being a Record of the life and death of our blessed Saviour the latter instructions for the edification of the Church in pious and Christian conversation and all this was done with so much choice that as obscure places are avoided by design as much as could be so the very assignation of them to certain festivals the appropriation of them to solemn and particular days does entertain the understandings of the people with notions proper to the mystery and distinct from impertinent and vexatious questions And were this design made something more minute and applicable to the various necessities of times and such choice Scriptures permitted indifferently which might be matter of necessity and great edification the people of the Church would have no reason to complain that the fountains of our Saviour were stopp'd from them nor the Rulers of the Church that the mysteriousness of Scripture were abused by the petulancy of the people to consequents harsh impious and unreasonable in despight of government in exauctoration of the power of superiours or for the commencement of schisms and heresies The Church with great wisdome hath first held this torch out and though for great reasons intervening and hindering it cannot be reduced to practice yet the Church hath shewn her desire to avoid the evil that is on both hands and she hath shewn the way also if it could have been insisted in But however this choice of the more remarkable portions of Scripture is so reasonable and proportionable to the nature of the thing that because the Gospels and Epistles bear their several shares of the design the Gospel representing the foundation and prime necessities of Christianity and the mysterious parts of our Redemption the summe the faith and the hopes of Christianity therefore it is attested by a ceremony of standing up it being a part of the confession of faith but the Epistles containing superstructures upon that foundation are read with religious care but not made formal or solemn by any other circumstance The matter contains in it sufficient of reason and of proportion but nothing of necessity except it be by accident and as authority does intervene by way of sanction 27. But that this reading of Epistles and Gospels before the Communion was one of the earliest customes of the Church I finde it affirmed by Rabanus Maurus Sed enim initio mos iste cantandi non erat qui nunc in Ecclesia ante sacrificium
there by any such thing as regeneration by the Ministery of the word and begetting in Christ and Fathers and Sons after the common faith as the expressions of the Apostle make us to beleeve certain it is the blessings of Religion doe descend most properly from our spiritual Fathers and with most plentiful emanation And this hath been the Religion of all the world to derive very much of their blessings by the Priests particular and signal ministration Melchisedech blessed Abraham Isaac blessed Jacob and Moses and Aaron blessed the people So that here is benediction from a Prince from a Father from the Aaronical Priest from Melchisedech of whose order is the Christian in whose Law it is a sanction that in grea◠needs especially the Elders of the Church be sent for and let them pray over him that is distressed That is the great remedy for the great necessity And it was ever much valued in the Church insomuch that Nectarius would by no means take investiture of his Patriarchal Sea until he had obtained the benediction of Diodorus the Bishop of Cilicia Eudoxia the Empress brought her son Theodosius to S. Chrysostome for his blessing and S. Austin and all his company received it of Innocentius Bishop of Carthage It was so solemne in all marriages that the marrying of persons was called Benediction So it was in the fourth Councel of Carthage Sponsus sponsa cùm benedicendi sunt à Sacerdote c. benedicendi for married ... And in all Church Offices it was so solemne that by a Decree of the Councel of Agatho A. D. 380. it was decreed ante benedictionem Sacerdotis populus egredi non praesumat By the way onely here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for two parts of the English Liturgy For the benediction in the Office of marriage by the authority of the Councel of Carthage and for concluding the Office of Communion with the Priests or Bishops benediction by warrant of the Councel of Agatho which Decrees having been derived into the practice of the universal Church for very many ages is in no hand to be undervalued lest we become like Esau and we miss it when we most need it For my own particular I shall still press on to receive the benediction of holy Church till at last I shall hear a Venite benedicti and that I be reckoned amongst those blessed souls who come to God by the ministeries of his own appointment and will not venture upon that neglect against which the piety and wisdome of all Religions in the world infinitely doe prescribe 44. Now the advantages of confidence which I have upon the forms of benediction in the Common prayer-Prayer-book are therefore considerable because God himself prescribed a set form of blessing the people appointing it to be done not in the Priests extempore but in an established form of words and because as the authority of a prescript form is from God so that this form may be also highly warranted the solemne blessing at the end of the Communion is in the very words of S. Paul 45. For the forms of Absolution in the Liturgy though I shall not enter into consideration of the Question concerning the quality of the Priests power which is certainly a very great ministery yet I shall observe the rare temper and proportion which the Church of England uses in commensurating the forms of Absolution to the degrees of preparation and necessity At the beginning of the Morning and Evening Prayer after a general Confession usually recited before the devotion is high and pregnant whose parts like fire enkindle one another there is a form of Absolution in general declarative and by way of proposition In the Office of the Communion because there are more acts of piety and repentance previous and presupposed there the Churches form of Absolution is optative and by way of intercession But in the Visitation of the sick when it is supposed and enjoyned that the penitent shall disburthen himself of all the clamorous loads upon his conscience the Church prescribes a medicinal form by way of delegate authority that the parts of justification may answer to the parts of good life For as the penitent proceeds so does the Church pardon and repentance being terms of relation they grow up together till they be compleat this the Church with greatest wisdom supposes to be at the end of our life grace by that time having all its growth that it will have here therefore then also the pardon of sins is of another nature then it ever was before if being now more actual and compleat whereas before it was in fieri in the beginnings and smaller increases and upon more accidents apt to be made imperfect and revocable So that the Church of England in these manners of dispensing the power of the Keys does cut off all disputings and impertinent wranglings whether the Priests power were Judicial or declarative for possibly it is both and it is optative too and something else yet for it is an emanation from all the parts of his Ministery and he never absolves but he preaches or prays or administers a Sacrament for this power of remission is a transcendent passing through all the parts of the Priestly Offices For the keys of the Kingdome of heaven are the promises the threatnings of the Scripture and the prayers of the Church and the Word and the Sacraments and all these are to be dispensed by the Priest and these keys are committed to his Ministery and by the operation of them all he opens and shuts heaven gates ministerially and therefore S. Paul calls it verbum reconciliationis and says it is dispensed by Ministers as by Embassadors or Delegates and therefore it is an excellent temper of the Church so to prescribe her forms of Absolution as to shew them to be results of the whole Priestly Office of Preaching of dispensing Sacraments of spiritual Cure and authoritative deprecation And the benefit which pious and well disposed persons receive by these publick Ministeries as it lies ready formed in our blessed Saviours promise erit solutum in coelis so men will then truly understand when they are taught to value every instrument of grace or comfort by the exigence of a present need as in a sadness of spirit in an unquiet conscience in the arrest of death 46. I shall not need to procure advantages to the reputation of the Common Prayer by considering the imperfections of whatsoever hath been offered in its stead but yet a 1 form of worship composed to the dishonour of the Reformation accusing it of darkness and intolerable inconvenience 2 a direction without a rule 3 a rule without restraint 4 a prescription leaving an indifferency to a possibility of licentiousness 5 an office without any injunction of external acts of worship not prescribing so much as kneeling 6 an office that onely once names reverence but forbids it in the ordinary instance and enjoyns it in
That indetermination of the office may not introduce indifferency nor indifferency lead in a freer liberty or liberty degenerate into licentiousness or licentiousness into folly and vanity and these come sometime attended with secular designs lest these be cursed with the immission of a peevish spirit upon our Priests and that spirit be a teacher of lies and these lies become the basis of impious theoremes which are certainly attended with ungodly lives and then either Atheism or Antichristianism may come according as shall happen in the conjunction of time and other circumstances for this would be a sad climax a ladder upon which are no Angels ascending or descending because the degrees lead to darkness and misery 5. But that which is of special concernment is this that the Liturgy of the Church of England hath advantages so many and so considerable as not onely to raise it self above the devotions of other Churches but to endear the affections of good people to be in love with Liturgy in general 6. For to the Churches of the Romane Communion we can say that ours is reformed to the reformed Churches we can say that ours is orderly and decent for we were freed from the impositions and lasting errours of a tyrannical spirit and yet from the extravagancies of a popular spirit too our reformation was done without tumult and yet we saw it necessary to reform we were zealous to cast away the old errours but our zeal was balanced with consideration and the results of authority Not like women or children when they are affrighted with fire in their clothes we shak'd off the cole indeed but not our garments lest we should have exposed our Churches to that nakedness which the excellent men of our sister Churches complained to be among themselves 7. And indeed it is no small advantage to our Liturgy that it was the off-spring of all that authority which was to prescribe in matters of Religion The king and the Priest which are the Antistites Religionis and the preservers of both the Tables joyn'd in this work and the people as it was represented in Parliament were advised withal in authorizing the form after much deliberation for the Rule Quod spectat ad omnes ab omnibus tractari debet was here observed with strictness and then as it had the advantages of discourse so also of authorities its reason from one and its sanction from the other that it might be both reasonable and sacred and free not onely from the indiscretions but which is very considerable from the scandal of popularity 8. And in this I cannot but observe the great wisdome and mercy of God in directing the contrivers of the Liturgy with the spirit of zeal and prudence to allay the furies and heats of the first affrightment For when men are in danger of burning so they leap from the flames they consider not whither but whence and the first reflections of a crooked tree are not to straightness but to a contrary incurvation yet it pleased the Spirit of God so to temper and direct their spirits that in the first Liturgy of King Edward they did rather retain something that needed further consideration then reject any thing that was certainly pious and holy and in the second Liturgy that they might also throughly reform they did rather cast out something that might with good profit have remained then not satisfy the world of their zeal to reform of their charity in declining every thing that was offensive and the clearness of their light in discerning every semblance of errour or suspicion in the Romane Church 9. The truth is although they fram'd the Liturgy with the greatest consideration that could be by all the united wisdome of this Church and State yet as if Prophetically to avoid their being charg'd in after ages with a crepusculum of Religion a dark twilight imperfect Reformation they joyn'd to their own starre all the shining tapers of the other reformed Churches calling for the advice of the most eminently learned and zealous Reformers in other Kingdomes that the light of all together might shew them a clear path to walk in And this their care produced some change for upon the consultation the first form of King Edwards service-Service-book was approved with the exception of a very few clauses which upon that occasion were review'd and expung'd till it came to that second form and modest beauty it was in the Edition of M D L II and which Gilbertus a German approved of as a transcript of the ancient and primitive forms 10. It was necessary for them to stay somewhere Christendome was not onely reformed but divided too and every division would to all ages have called for some alteration or else have disliked it publickly and since all that cast off the Romane yoke thought they had title enough to be called Reformed it was hard to have pleased all the private interests and peevishness of men that called themselves friends and therefore that onely in which the Church of Rome had prevaricated against the word of God or innovated against Apostolical tradition all that was par'd away But at last she fix'd and strove no further to please the people who never could be satisfied 11. The Painter that exposed his work to the censure of the common passengers resolving to mend it as long as any man could finde fault at last had brought the eyes to the ears and the ears to the neck and for his excuse subscrib'd Hanc populus fecit But his Hanc ego that which he made by the rules of art and the advice of men skill'd in the same mystery was the better peece The Church of England should have par'd away all the Canon of the Communion if she had mended her peece at the prescription of the Zuinglians and all her office of Baptism if she had mended by the rules of the Anabaptists and kept up Altars still by the example of the Lutherans and not have retain'd decency by the good will of the Calvinists and now another new light is sprung up she should have no Liturgy at all but the worship of God be left to the managing of chance and indeliberation and a petulant fancy 12. It began early to discover its inconvenience for when certain zealous persons fled to Frankford to avoid the funeral piles kindled by the Romane Bishops in Queen Maries time as if they had not enemies enough abroad they fell foul with one another and the quarrel was about the Common Prayer Book and some of them made their appeal to the judgement of M r Calvin whom they prepossessed with strange representments and troubled phantasms concerning it and yet the worst he said upon the provocation of those prejudices was that even its vanities were tolerable Tolerabiles ineptias was the unhandsome Epithete he gave to some things which he was forc'd to dislike by his over-earnest complying with the Brethren of Frankford 13. Well! upon this the wisdome of